Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Capsule of Time

As the year comes to a close, we have begun a project to make a time capsule that is representative of ourselves in this given time period. As we grow older, we all change and evolve, and I love the idea of encapsulating the person you were earlier in life.

In my personal time capsule I have placed many items I feel are representative of my life and I. As I move on to my future life in a few weeks, I feel I will be appreciative when I find this capsule in a couple of decades.

Within the capsule I have placed pictures of myself and my friends, my horse, some pictures of fun high school memories, a few pages from some of my classes, a list of my favorite bands/ songs, a few of my doodles, the list goes on. The picture of my horse is of the day I received him as a birthday present, or one of the happiest days of my life. The pages of my history notebook are so I can remember all the great history teachers i've had (my favorite subject next to art), and so I can see what my handwriting was like. Everything I placed within the capsule has a certain meaning to me, and I am hoping it will make my future self smile as well.

Now onto the outside of the box. I decided to paint the box rather than collage it, as I am not the best collagist. On top I painted the scene I feel best represents me, my typical mountain sunset paintings. I just love the beauty of both sunsets and the mountains, so why not combine them? On the sides i painted a number of different designs, each representing one of my years of high school, starting with freshman year and ending with senior year. Im leaving it up to onlookers to think of which side is which year.

I am sincerely hoping that this time capsule survives a few decades. Maybe it will, and if it does, I hope it makes me smile to reminisce all the memories i've had in my four years at HTHS.

A Final Goodbye to HS

Well, it seems this next week I will be walking to get my diploma, saying goodbye to high school after four long years at HTHS. Within those four years, I spent two years in Mrs. Kiick's art class, which were probably two of my favorite classes of the entire high school experience.

These classes have provided me with a way to learn and grow in art, an opportunity to access my usually hidden creativity. In these two years I truly believe I have grown as an artist. When I came as a sophomore, I only knew how to shade with a pencil. I knew nothing of depth, or shading with light. Through these two years I have learned how to use acrylics, watercolor, transferring images, and colored pencils. I have also learned that I can draw more than just horses, and mountains, although they remain my favorite things to draw. I have truly benefited by coming to art classes these two years, and I wish I had taken them all four years.

Both years we did different projects, but I do wish we had had the opportunity to work with metals this year. To this day my metal piece from sophomore year remains one of my favorite works. However, the bike drawing we did earlier in the year has taken its place among my favorite works of art. Yet, next year the art program is once again expanding into several different classes (I'm jealous!)  so people will have several chances to work with what they want to do in the art world.

As I step into the world and head off to college, I will always remember my creative arts classes with Mrs. Kiick. She pushed me passed my perfectionisms and made me see that going with the flow is sometimes the better way.

Thank you for being a great teacher Mrs. Kiick, and goodbye HTHS - I hope the future is great.